Risky Business

This is just a simple sorting game. You'll be given a few different threats, and you order them by lifetime risk of death. Important: these aren't personal risks, they're averaged over the population. So whether you drive a car isn't relevant to the risk of death in an automobile accident.

It varies. Some risks have pretty clear answers. For instance, you can count the number of people who die in motor vehicle accidents each year. Some risks are largely based on certain assumptions: the odds of dying in a terrorist attack in the US depends on how often you think they will occur (we assumed a single "9/11" level event in your lifetime). Others risks are in the middle: for asteroids we can calculate the statistical chance of an impact for a given size, and estimate the number of deaths that would occur.

But I don't drive a car, so it's different for me, right?

No, these aren't individual, personal risks, they're averaged over the whole population. Think of it from society's perspective: if you were President, which risks would you want to pay the most attention?

Credits: Spider image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

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Great Balls of Fire

SSI will be launching a traveling exhibit on asteroids and comets in the summer of 2011. Visit the exhibit site to learn more.